How Bank Worker, 3 Others Emptied Customer’s Dormant Account, Thinking He’s Dead — EFCC

The account of a Nigerian man who resides in Saudi Arabia has allegedly been emptied by a commercial bank official, alongside three others who thought he was dead.

According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the suspects had concluded that the owner of the account, Sanusi Yakubu, was dead because he did not operate the account for years.

The commission said one of the suspects, who works in the bank had contacted his suspected accomplices, Ado Shehu, Ali Muhammad and Abba Sanusi, who work with the Sharia Court, Kano State, to obtain court documents declaring the death of the account owner and that, as his heirs, should be given access to his money.

Yakubu (the account owner) subsequently petitioned the EFCC’s Kano zonal office, which then apprehended Shehu and his accomplices of the Kano State High Court, on three counts bordering on theft and receipt of gratification.

The complainant, Yakubu, in his petition, said at one Williams Aondo (now late), the commercial bank staff connived with Shehu and Muhammad, both of whom are staff of Sharia Court, Kano State, and instituted a civil action which claimed that he (Yakubu) was deceased, after Aondo had noticed inactivity on his account for a few years, whereas he was alive and well in Saudi Arabia.

Yakubu also alleged that the court, acting upon the information presented before it by the said Shehu and Muhammad, ordered his account to be closed and that the sum of ₦1,255,728.00 that was in the account be remitted to the court for distribution to his heirs.

Count one of the charge reads: “That you Ado Shehu, Ali Muhammad and Abba Sanusi (now at large), sometime in December 2017 at Kano, Kano State, within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, conspired among yourselves to do an illegal act, to wit: conspiracy to commit theft against one Sanusi Yakubu and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 96(1)(a) and punishable under Section 97 of the Penal Code Law (1987).”

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

Following their plea, Defence counsel Rabiu Sani, made an oral application for bail for the defendants, which Justice Amina Aliyu granted, asking the defendants to pay the sum of N100,000 each and two sureties in like sum.

He said one of the sureties must be a staff of the judiciary, not less than Grade Level 12; and the other must also be a judiciary staff.

She further ordered that they be remanded in the custody of NCS pending the fulfillment of their bail conditions.

The case was adjourned until November 14, 2019 for hearing.